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Summer heat, schools out and baseball fields echo with the crack of a baseball bat against a baseball.

Thats right, the crack of the bat.

In the modern era of baseball, where most scholastic, college and rec baseball leagues use aluminum bats and baseball fields echo with pings and dings, the Westchester/Rockland Wooden Bat League features bats made from trees not metal alloys.

The WRWBL is an 18 and over all-wood bat league serving the New York metropolitan area with teams from Westchester, Rockland, Manhattan and Fairfield County, Connecticut. It began its summer season in late May and teams from throughout the two counties are already three or four games deep into the schedule.

Westchester boasts the Peekskill Tides, currently in first place at 4-0, Rye Patriots (2-1), Pleasantville Red Sox (2-1), Hastings Lookouts (2-2), New Rochelle Dirtbags (0-3), Somers Cyclones (0-2) and New Rochelle Tigers (0-0). The Danbury Barons represent Connecticut at 3-1, Rockland has the Rockland Astros (1-2), Rockland Cavaliers (0-3), Suffern Blue Devils (0-0) and New City Outlaws (0-1). New York City teams include The New York Bears (3-2), New York Thunderdogs (3-2) and Hudson Mudcats (0-0).

Im a 30-year old former college player playing with current college players, so I enjoy the competition, especially as a pitcher because the wooden bats make the game truer, said Corey Borowitz, a 30-year-old teacher in the New York City schools system who pitches for the first-place Peekskill Tides. Ive been with the Tides for seven years. The league is very competitive  I still love playing the game.

The Westchester/Rockland Wood Bat League (WRWBL) traces its roots back to 1993 when Elizabeth Vinberg of Somers saw the need for a league for 18-and-over players. In 1993, five teams including the Somers Orioles, Somers Storm, Cross River Indians, Putnam Cobras and Yonkers Black Sox would play a round-robin schedule and what is now known as the WRWBL was born.

Officially founded in 1994 as the Westchester/Putnam MABL (WPMABL), the league added five teams to the mix including the Westchester Wildcats (now known as the Peekskill Tides), Yonkers Yankees, New York Diamonds, Rockland Federales and Bronx Reds. The Northern Highlanders, Sound Shore Knights and Ossining Prison Keepers joined in 1996. The Mount Kisco Horseman were added in 1998 and the Tarrytown Lookouts, Pleasantville Red Sox and Danbury Barons came on in 1999.

For more information on the Westchester/Rockland Wood Bat League, including game sites and schedules, log on Wrwbl.vicid.net.